XC Sweeps League in Final Regular Season Meet

The cross country team swept all 6 divisions (boys’ and girls’ frosh soph, JV and varsity) at the final DAL center meet on October 24 at Newhall Park in Concord. As a result, varsity girls, varsity boys and frosh soph boys concluded their regular seasons undefeated.  

After losing to Acalanes and Las Lomas earlier in the year, the frosh soph girls redeemed themselves by defeating the Dons and the Knights, as well as the other 10 teams of the league. They were led by freshman standouts Sarah Burton, who placed 2nd overall, and Haelee Chung, who placed 4th overall.

Senior Chole Guthrie led the JV girls’ return to form after being beaten by Northgate in the 1st center meet of the season. Guthrie took the individual win, 28 second ahead of 2nd place on the 1.95 mile course.

After Acalanes halted the JV boys’ decade-long league win streak with a 2-point victory on the Hidden Valley Park course in September, the Cougars responded with a convincing thrashing of the field on Wednesday.

Junior Sam Morach took the individual win. “There were a lot of question marks for both me and the team heading into the race and I don’t think it could have gone better,” said Morach of the JV boys’ strong performance.

The varsity boys, led by senior Teddy Buckley and junior Cayden Hein, also won in convincing fashion. Buckley beat league rival, Preston Norris of Las Lomas, to take the individual win. Hein placed 3rd.

Hein made an assertive move midway through the race: “After the second loop of the pond, that’s where I just went. I knew I had to go if I wanted to get 3rd.”

The varsity girls beat rivals Miramonte, as well as the rest of the league, with  juniors Paloma Hancock and Alicia Hober placing 4th and 5th, respectivly.

The win was a significant improvement over the 4th place finish for the varsity girls’ at the Roughrider Invitational on October 12.

Hancock said, “We definitely redeemed ourselves from Roughrider. We weren’t really mentally there that meet. This meet we all went out with a plan to beat Miramonte because they were one of out top competitors.”

According to Head Coach Tim Hunter this meet was a, “huge improvement from the 1st center meet and improvement from prior invitationals.”